Of course, now he just shouts. I can’t understand what he’s singing. Too bad. But he’s actually out there just to say “I am what I am. This is me. If you like it you can like it. If you don’t like it, it doesn’t make a damn to me.” He wrote his best songs when he was young. As did I.

About the blogger

Bob Collins has been with Minnesota Public Radio since 1992, emigrating to Minnesota from Massachusetts where he was VP of programming for Berkshire Broadcasting Co. He was an editor at the RKO Radio Network in New York, and WHDH Radio in Boston. He is the founder of the MPR News’ website. He is a private pilot and flies an airplane he built.

Related Blog Posts

Desolation Row starts out, presumably, about the lynchings in Duluth, though it isn’t called out by name:

They’re selling postcards of the hanging

They’re painting the passports brown

The beauty parlor is filled with sailors

The circus is in town

I’m sure there are other Minnesota references that aren’t explict, this is just the first one to come to mind for me.

Robert Moffitt

I was never much of a Dylan fan, but I have come along as we both get older.

I love Pete, a living legend and all, but he’s wrong when he said Dylan’s best stuff came when he was young. The best thing about Dylan is he’s still trying new stuff. Some of it is epic. Some of it is awful. But the fact that he is still working hard around the fringes, trying to write that next great song is why I really respect Bob Dylan.

The man has no more honors left to win, nothing left to prove. But for Dylan, that’s not good enough.